Wisconsin State Senate Republicans have Voted on Party Lines to Reject Confirmation of the State’s Top Ethics and Elections Officials, which Republicans said will effectively Fire them, and Democrats Decried as Political score-settling that will hamper Oversight of Elections and Public Officials.
The move defies the Bipartisan Commissions that hired Ethics Commission Administrator Brian Bell and Elections Commission Administrator Mike Haas in 2016 and has supported them since.
Senators voted 18-13, with all Republicans supporting and all Democrats opposed, to reject Bell’s Confirmation Tuesday. The Vote to Reject Haas’ Confirmation was 18-12, also on Party Lines.
It also raises the possibility of a Court Battle over their Administrators’ Futures. Civic groups including Common Cause of Wisconsin and ACLU of Wisconsin have said they may Challenge Lawmakers’ Authority to oust the Administrators in Defiance of the Commissions.
Ethics Commission Chairman David Halbrooks, a Democrat, said minutes after Tuesday’s Votes that there could be a Court fight over the matter. Elections Commission Chairman Mark Thomsen has said only the Commissions have Legal Authority to Fire the Administrators. The Two Commissions hired Bell and Haas in 2016 and have supported them since. Halbrooks also would not rule out the possibility that Ethics Commissioners could re-appoint Bell as their Administrator on an Interim basis. Haas said he would be open to such an arrangement if Elections Commissioners would offer it to him.
Fitzgerald further signaled in Tuesday’s Press Conference that GOP Lawmakers may look to Purge other Employees of the Ethics and Elections Commissions who, like Bell and Haas, once worked at the now-defunct Government Accountability Board, including the Commissions’ Lead Attorneys, Nathan Judnic and David Buerger, respectively.
The Ethics Commission oversees Campaign Finance, Ethics and Lobbying Laws. The Elections Commission oversees Elections and helps Local Clerks run them.
The calls to oust Bell and Haas came after Republican state Attorney General Brad Schimel released a Report into the Leak of Documents from a Secret Investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s 2012 Recall Campaign to The Guardian newspaper. The Attorney General’s Report called for 10 Public Officials to face Disciplinary Measures in connection with the Leak, none of whom were Haas or Bell. It suggested Bell and Buerger had not fully Cooperated with the Justice Department Probe, a characterization to which they and the Ethics Commission strongly objected.
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